Drop! An Elysian Drop Trooper Story
by Darkzz009
Summary: The story of the trooper from the 710th Elysian Drop Troop Regiment, as he will be baptized by fire on the planet Noir II of the Noir system. as he will learn to conquer his weakness and serve the God-Emperor. (Chapter 1 and 2 Updated)
1. Chapter 1

" **Finally, my time has come to serve the Emperor and to battle the enemies of the Imperium as a proud member of the Elysian Drop Troops Regiment. After five years serving the PDF, fending off the Dark Eldar pirates from our system and two grueling years in the Drop Troop training has finally paid off. I was assigned at 710th** **Elysian Drop Troop Regiment, 2nd** **Battalion, and 1st Company. In the next few days we were to arrive at a planet Noir II in the Noir System to reinforce other regiments already deployed there. Veteran Sergeant Rayn told us that the dangers that we might face could muster losses from our company would be 50 percent when the mission starts, I hope I would not be included in the 50 percent… so I hope"**

 **Corporal Montan "Sparrow" Passer**

 **2nd** **battalion, 1st** **company, 3rd** **Squad Leader**

After four days of warp travel, the Imperial Navy Cruiser brought the 215th, 419th and the 710th Elysian Drop Troops; all newly graduated and will be their first combat mission. Finally arrived at the orbit of Noir II, Immediately were mustered and assigned at their designated regions. The 710th were assigned to support the 430thCadian Shock Troops battling the heretics in a dessert province of the planet, the 812 strong men and women of the 2nd Battalion were ordered to drop in the middle of the town. It lays few meters away to the foot of strategic hill, as the commanders saw a huge strategic value of the town, for direct assault at the hill would risks high casualties. The hill, strategically overlooked the battlefield 360 degrees and a perfect location for artillery observers, it houses a fortified bunker and no doubt have communications system installed. It also secures a convoy road for logistics transport which is too valuable to be dismissed by the commanders, they are also aware that it is no doubt being heavily fortified by the heretics. All officers agreed that this critical location must be captured at all cost.

And thus 77 Vendetta all fully loaded with the 2nd Battalion are closing in at the town, distant anti air guns and anti-air missiles were fired at the Vendetta's, while the latter deployed chaffs and the gunners countered with their heavy bolters. Sparrow's hand shook wildly as he felt the vibration of the hull becomes stronger, even though no stranger to danger and combat, this was his first time to be in a planet wide war. His eyes scanned at his surroundings and took a glanced at his two buddies. Both are also nervous but they try to ease their fear by chatting. While the veterans just took a deep breath and whispered some prayers. He took a deep breathe, sucking the recycled air. The stale taste neither eased his nausea. The atmosphere was tensed as every man in the Vendetta knew all of them would die, no one expects to see another day. As the saying "Never expect to come out alive for you will be the first casualty.

"You alright there" his buddy, Pvt. Harp asked

Sparrow just nodded as he lost any strength to speak, his anxiety overpowered him.

"Bet he is panic mode now, the bird who is afraid to fly." commented by Pvt. Hum his squad mate and a burst of laughter soon were heard. It was the only way to ease up the tension they felt.

"All right guys that is enough. Listen up." Sgt. Rayn chimed in and all eyes focused on him.

"In thirty seconds our squad along with ten more squads will drop into the town square and will secure a parameter. While the rest of the 1st company Vendetta's will drop off on some buildings surrounding the town square, and the 2nd company will drop off from the southern part of the town and will surround it. This will be a bloody house to house fighting. Expect heavy resistance and I know this will be difficult, and this is your first combat as a drop troop. But this is where we are good at and we will drag those bastards back to the warp. And remember that the 430th Cadian depend on us. The Emperor protects us all."

"The emperor protects" they all shouted.

The Klaxon soon chimed and the green light blinked as the ramp door of the Vendetta opened, revealing the grey skies. They formed a single file and saw traces of anti-air munitions can be seen flying in air.

"Everyone… Jump now!" Sgt. Rayn shouted as he was the first to jump off the Vendetta Gunship, soon followed by everyone onboard.

As Sparrow, the last person to get off the vessel felt some strong force threw him off air. Only to realize the vendetta was hit by a missile and blew off seconds after his feet were away from the ramp, now swirling mid-air as he lost control of his grav-chute. He struggled to get himself into position as the thrusters of his chute just threw him in endless turbulence. He prayed as some bullets whizzing inches from his face while others weren't so lucky, a fellow drop troop was hit by an autocannon round and shattered into pieces. While the other one was his grav-chute has hit and fell to his death. Sparrow could see blood scattered in mid-air, and some burning debris and person falling down. He could see the ground is going closer and enemies littered the area firing at them. His hands tried to reach the control mechanism of his grav-chute to shut it off, but to no avail. His heart beats faster than normal as he is hundred feet away from the ground.

"Shit" the only word sparrow could say as his body rattled in fear.

"Guess I'm in that 50 percent after all." He thought as he closed his eyes.

The shaking of his body intensifies as his fear of heights and flying overcomes him again. He wanted to die just to end his fear, he wanted it now!

His thought was disrupted as a hand smacked his helmet; he opened his eyes and saw a familiar face smiling at him.

"Rule number 1, never close your eyes" Sgt. Rayn Screamed as he reached at his grav-chute and shut it down.

He grabbed Sparrow and they descended towards a three story house, sparrow was in awe as Sgt. Rayn flew like a graceful bird as he maneuvered to dodge the bullets from the enemies firing from the window. He wondered how he could do those things as his fellow troopers couldn't imitate.

Sparrow's eyes widened as he realized what his Sergeant was planning, as they get closer to the house he let out a curse. He could see a single enemy firing frantically with his lasgun, as his surrounding seemed to slow down as they both smashed the window. It looked like a small window but surprisingly it fitted two sandwiched men, Sparrow slowly stood up while Sgt. Rayn fired a shot on the heretic's forehead.

"Even though he would not survive that impact, I would not risk any chance." He said and tossed the Lascarbine at sparrow. He signaled at the window and both of them peered at the scene outside.

Six enemies covered behind the sandbags firing at the descending troopers, Sgt .Rayn signaled sparrow to open fire.

"Three from the left is mine, the rest is yours."

"Copy that sarge."

Rapid shots were fired and the heads of the heretics were blown.

"Another four from the far left, they have heavy bolter."

"Copy that."

Another shots fired at the heavy infantry, they save the lives of their fellow troopers who landed safely at the square and took cover, while other troopers landed on top of the houses and provided covering fire for the others. This unfortunately did not go unnoticed, as some enemies who took cover at the first floor of the mansion house saw the laser coming out above them hitting their comrades. Sgt. Rayn heard footsteps and voices coming towards them.

"We got company, just help the others to land safely and I'll take care of these heretics below. And I'll sweep the house" Sgt. Rayn ordered as he readied his las carbine.

Sparrow nodded as he finished putting his fresh battery pack to his weapon. And with his scope he shot another shots and killed another two, other heretic saw his position and burst him with heavy stubbers and autoguns, he ducked from the window and crawled into another position. The firing suddenly stopped as familiar voices screamed out of nowhere, he was surprised as two figures came crashing into the windows and rolled on the floor.

Privates Hum and Harp both cursing as they struggled to take off their Grav-Chute, but they were smart enough to keep their heads from the window. Sparrow smiled as he saw his two buddies, but alarmed as he heard footsteps coming in their way. He trailed his gun on both Hum and Harp's position, much to the duo's surprise as Sparrow opened fire. Two shots fired and two long laser trails passed between Harp and Hum and bore holes into the two heretics who were hiding on the closet with improvised sharp objects in their hands. One was shot on the forehead, the other in his chest. Harp and Hum was almost breathless at what have they witnessed.

"By the Emperor, that was sick!" Harp shouted in excitement.

"You Bastard, I thought I lost my head." Hum added as he shook his head in disbelief but laughed with Harp.

The trio continued laughing but stops abruptly as bullets and lasers heading towards their direction, they ducked and crawled at the door to get out of the room. They checked the rooms and went on the first floor, they soon stumbled on Sgt. Rayn as he was kneeling and reloading his Las-Carbine, he turned his head and motioned for the three to come to him.

"Good to see you guys, Harp and Hum you will lay suppressing fire as me and Sparrow will flank those bastards outside. They're pinning some squads in the street." Sgt. Rayne ordered as he motioned them to the window.

They see the heretics across the street, they were focused on some Elysians taking cover on rockcrete and debris, and others were shot down mid-air by stubbers and autoguns. As they observe for more enemies, with his signal Pvt. Harp and Hum opened fired at the heavy weapons team while Sgt. Rayn and Cpl. Sparrow dashed to flank the group of heretics pinned down. They both opened fired and killed seven heretics, mostly in the neck and head. As they trailed their scope of their lascarbines they spotted four more heretics charging with chain swords, they aimed at the chest and to head as they pulled the trigger. One heretic crashed on the cemented street without a head, while the other died when his chest bursts with his blood splashed at the two remaining heretic. But they neither faltered and Sparrow could see their bloodshot eyes and mouth foaming with unholy rage. With another pull of his trigger, the two went down with their heads exploded.

"Good shooting." Rayn patted at Sparrow as he motioned for Harp and Hum to regroup.

Soon the pinned Elysians came out of their hiding and rallied at Sgt. Rayn, all of them were rookies as the Sergeant could tell. He motioned them to surround him as he crouched at started to draw a map on the cemented ground with a burned out ember, he made sketches of few houses and the location of the DZ of the second company. He ordered them to sweep each houses, he soon contacted the remaining 1st company with his comm bead to regroup and pushed forward to rendezvous with the 2nd company.

"Alright let's go!" Sgt. Rayn commanded and the rest was hell for Sparrow.

It was a bitter house to house fighting, they breached the door and started shooting, some houses were booby trapped and killed few Elysians. Others were killed by snipers hiding from the windows, it was answered by melta charges thrown in the window and burned some houses, the screams of burning agony were heard around the town. Other Elysians stormed the hosues and sprayed lasers and promethium fire inside. Some breached the door and stumbled on the civvies, shaken and fearful for their lives. Sparrow leave them alone as they search for the enemies. Other civvies were not fortunate as they were burned with promethium fire.

Soon they stumbled some Weapons and Ammunition Canisters that survived and used into their advantage, they soon linked up with the rest of the veterans of the 1st company and made a push into the center of the town. Soon the street were littered by burning heretics as Accatran Patterned Melta-guns, Plasma Guns and missile launchers were used. The town was burning and the last heretic was killed when he was hit in the crotch by Sparrow who was now equipped with Accatran Patterned Modified Sniper Lasgun, his buddies were laughing at the heretics predicament. Sgt. Rayn took a worried glance at Sparrow.

"Give me a status report." Sgt. Rayn called on one of the veterans who saluted him and gave him a dataslate.

"Sir, the northern part of the town is now secured. Before you managed to link with us we have already eliminated the bulk of the defenders in this sector." Cpl. Duke said as he pointed the location. Rayn nodded as he studied the map of the town.

"The current headcount is 294, sir." Sgt. Rayn removed his helmet and sight at the dataslate and looked at in the eyes,

"112 are already lost. I'm wondering why the Vendetta did not aid us in this assault." Sgt. Rayn lamented, he really didn't understand the command.

"They were ordered to head into another location after they dropped the last person in our company sir, they were needed in other location. That was the last thing I heard from our voxcaster." replied Cpl. duke

Sgt. Rayn shook his head in disbelief as he returned the dataslate to Cpl. Duke.

"What about the Sky Talon and the Tauros? I didn't see any of them."

"Unfortunately, I saw one was shot down and landed in the southern part of the town. The rest, I have no idea." Cpl. Duke was grim.

Sgt. Rayn let out a depressing sigh, as he really needed most of the firepower to take this town. And the loss of 112 was really a high number for him.

"They suffered casualties though. Everything will be easy if they gave us air support." he added as he shook his head in disbelief, he wondered why it was necessary to pullout the Vendetta's. But he needed to adapt at the situation as he ordered to Cpl. Duke to muster all corporals including Sparrow, he was the only Sergeant left while other officers were killed. He wondered why the bulk of the officers of their company were packed together in one craft and get shot mid-air, but he remembered these were young officers who just graduated from the officer school. He was glad that the veterans respected him even though he was ten years younger than them and five years older than Sparrow who could be twenty two cycles, he sighed as he needed to give out all his leadership skills into this. All corporals were now around him as they devised a plan. Two groups of 147 each were mustered, as they were composed of veterans and rookies. The first group was to secure the area and gather all equipment around the perimeter, while the other 147 men will aid the 2nd company.

Sgt. Rayn with his men rushed through the southern part of the town to aid the 2nd Company, he called on the Voxcaster if she had any news to the 2nd Company.

"They were pinned down sir and took shelter in few houses, the enemy resistance was massive and they keep cursing on the command for taking away the air support." Rayn hoped he could make their way in time, as it was too late to realize that the 2nd Company stumbled on the Bulk of the enemy forces. He looked at Sparrow and motioned him to come forward, with his sniper rifle in tow Sparrow rushed towards Sgt. Rayn.

"Sparrow do you see that second tallest building?" he pointed his finger to a building northeast of their direction, Sparrow nodded.

"I need you there with Harp and Hum and become our overwatch, take out the heavy weapons team and any ambush teams while we take out the rest. Now go" Sparrow complied.

He along with Harp and Hum rushed to the building, when they reached at the door they made a tactical breach. Harp kicked at the door with Harp behind him, Sparrow rushed inside and made a sweep. No enemies were found, and then he turned his head to his buddies and nodded at them. They rushed towards the highest floor and positioned himself a meter away from the window, he placed a table under him while Harp with his binoculars. Hum lay traps on the hallway and closed the door of their room, he soon contacted Sgt. Rayn.

"Alright Sparrow, on your go we are in position." Sgt. Rayn told them from their comm beads.

Through his scope, Sparrow could see his comrades on top of hab buildings now readying their Grav-chutes. Harp soon located a heavy weapons nest, three people and a gunner. Sparrow trained his crosshair to the gunner and opened fired, the enemies head blew off which startled his comrades. Before the other could react his chest was blown making the two more to dive down, this had signaled the others to commence the assault. Sparrow shot another round when the heretic has peek his head out of cover, this made the last person in the nest to come out of cover as he tried to ran away but his back was blown off. Soon swarms of Elysian opened fire from above, killing the unprepared heretics. Sparrow spotted portable anti air missile crews, with their weapons trained on the descending Elysian Troopers. He could not kill them as fast as he could, but instead he aimed at the person carrying the extra missiles. He took a deep breath and shot at the missile, the blast made an impressive show and Harp clapped his hands in glee. This made the other heretics in the area to scamper away in confusion. While others, ran away leaving their weapons but soon picked off by the Elysians.

The 1st Company had pushed through the southern part of the town, and with their effort they had almost reached the remnants of the 2nd Company. Sparrow made his effort to kill any hard targets, but his effort was not being gone unnoticed by the heretics. Sounds of explosions and screams were heard below the floor, they cursed as their position was compromised. Sparrow scrambled at his comm bead.

"Sgt. We are compromised, repeat our location was compromised. Requesting for back up!" he almost screamed.

He heard the sounds and grunts from the bead but Sgt. Rayn's voice was incomprehensible.

"What?" Sparrow said as he exchanged worried looks with Harp and Hum. Their weapons raised on the door as the traps outside were activated, sending shocks on the floor.

"I'm sorry Sparrow, but we could not afford to send reinforcements, we are now in a push… just get the warp out of there." Sgt. Rayn replied

Sparrow's heart sank, and his heartbeat had quickened its pace again. He could not survive in a firefight with unknown numbers of heretics barging in, he only thought of one idea he hated.

"Jump off now!" Sparrow ordered as he run towards the window.

Sparrow fired at the glass window before leaping out, with Harp and Hum followed. Soon they activated their Grav-chutes and navigated their way towards the rest, as they evaded the lasers and bolter heading towards them. Sparrow fighting the urge to close his eyes from fear, but he keep himself focused as he keep his breathing to landed on the rooftop of an hab building, oversaw the scene and the 1st Company Elysians is still struggling. They provided another sniper cover that led to the advancement of Sgt. Rayn and his strike force, but abruptly stopped when an heretic Leman Russ tank had appeared. Its turret moved to find its target and opened fire at a squad, Sparrow could see the explosion and the poor Elysians were blown into pieces. One was running around as the promethium canister had leaked and burned him alive, the tank made another move as it targeted the pinned squad behind the walls.

"1st Company… Where fuck are you! Oh throne they're inside! Inside!" a voice echoed through the comm beads and vox.

Sparrow could hear Sgt. Rayn cursed as the 2nd Company was slowly being annihilated, as they needed to act quickly before they will be obliterated. Sparrow used his scope to scan for the promethium tank behind the Leman Russ, much to his dismay there was none but he caught something that might help. A melta bomb lay idle on the ground just a few feet from the tank's tracks, he quickly shot the bomb and the explosion had removed the tracks of the tank. As the burning promethium covering the hull, but it was still pack a punch as it opened fire its main cannon. Blowing a lone Elysian into pieces with his blood raining the area, Sparrow cursed under his breath. But he smiled when he saw Sgt. Rayn with a few Elysians swarming at the tank, using a breaching charge they blew the hatch cover and threw a melta grenade. The screams of heretics were heard but soon overtaken by the cheers of the 1st Company.

With a final push the Heretics ran away and the 1st Company had reached the battered 2nd Company, digging in unto what has become of a market building Hab. With only 400 remaining from the original 842 men and women, as almost all Senior Officers were dead except for one rookie Lieutenant and only Sgt. Rayn was the available NCO. They almost lost 50% of the battalion, most were rookies as expected.

Sparrow couldn't help but vomited after the carnage, the stench of death and burning flesh was too much to bear. Let alone the scene of carnage, he was exhausted as the adrenaline from his body fades. He smiled at himself that he managed his fear and anxiety as he laughed at the bickering by Pvt. Harp and Hum, but he knew this was not over yet. The thought of another battle made his hand shaken but a reassuring pat from Sgt. Rayn behind him.

The men were exhausted but still ready to kick some ass, they made a final sweep around the town and fortunately they didn't encounter any stragglers nor encounter any resistance at all. They had retreated and the 2nd Battalion of the 710th Regiment had officially taken the town, much to the delight of Sgt. Rayn as he patted again at Sparrow on his back.

"Good work Sparrow, I will make sure this will come to the books." he said. Sparrow just nodded his head as he sighed in relief.

"Hey, don't be joyful yet." Sgt. Rayn frowns as he pointed at the hill just north of the town,

Sparrow frown as he remembered their real objective, and he was aware that it was just few meters away before they could reach the foot of the hill. So fight is not over yet.

"I know sir, but well kill them all." Sparrow smiled as he finally grew confidence.

"Hey, just take some rest and don't worry too much. And thank you for saving our assess back there. I know she will be proud of you." Sgt. Rayn complimented

Sparrow frowned at the mention of "Her" and Sgt. Rayn took a hint as he apologized, but he saluted Sgt. Rayn and proceeded to the medic station to get some pain killers. He shook his head as he observed him, he have some potential but he had weaknesses that is really frowned upon by by the regiment. He exhaled as he looked at his dataslate and studied the map and layout of the bunker on top of the hill, he really needed much firepower with this. But he will adapt and he will succeed. Switching of the dataslate he rushed towards the medic station and let his wounds checked by the medicae.

 **A/N: This is my first attempt at Warhammer. I hope you enjoy reading my work, please feel free to review. Thanks again.**


	2. Chapter 2

" **We have finally taken this town. But the battle was bitter and brutal, we have lost many troopers. As expected 50% of our Battalion was wiped out, command could not send the rest of the 710** **th** **into our aid and there is no air support. Word said that there was confusion in the command that causes everything to fuck up, but Sgt. Rayn refused to give further details. This had caused the Cadians to be delayed because of the serious fucked up of the top brass. But we've been ordered to vacate the town as the command had finally decided to burn the town to the ground, but before that we've taken everything we could salvage. From the gears, ammo and guns from our dead comrades and the heretics and we've have also taken the dog tags from them, Send it to home later. We've manage to recover six Tauros from the downed Valkyrie Sky Talons earlier from the battle. We had dug a trench at the foot of the hill and took cover as artillery fire and from our flamers burned the cursed town to the ground. Nothing was spared not even for the civvies we have stumbled hiding from the battle earlier, we could not risk it. We had few retaliatory assaults and sniper fires coming from top of the hill, lost four of ours but we've killed many of them and blew them with our mortars. Tomorrow morning we will assault the hill and take the communications bunker dig in and wait for the reinforcements to come.**

 **I can't take my thoughts off Kestrel, hope she's okay, I really missed her but I have to finish this battle. Worst is that my anxiety attack is getting worst, hope could make this war alive."**

 **Corporal Montan "Sparrow" Passer**

 **2nd** **battalion, 1st** **company, 3rd** **Squad Leader**

Their breathing was now in pace, his hands intertwined with hers while his mouth sucking her breast.

Tomorrow will be their big day; they will now be a full-fledged Elite Drop Troops as they will face a real war. But tonight will be their last night together; he was assigned at 2nd the Battalion while she will take part to the command of the 1st Battalion. His pace now faster as he pounded her hips harder, her moans echoed throughout the room. He really missed her as their kisses were more passionate than he could remember; they were separated for two years because of their different training. But now she was here and that was all he needed.

"Sparrow" she moaned. His body moved faster and deeper into her.

"Sparrow" she whispered again, his hands gripping her hands tighter.

"Sparrow!" the voice was now different; it was more a male than Kestrel.

"Sparrow! Corporal Montan!" the voice echoing inside Sparrow

A slap jolted him awake and saw an angry Sgt. Rayn, his body were lower than the trench

He could see the bullets flew and explosions were heard.

"Fucking unbelievable… get your ass ready before we will all be killed out here."

Sparrow was sweating hard he didn't realized that he was dreaming, at first he was confused but soon memories filled him. They were at the foot of the hill and made a makeshift trench for cover. He took his sniper rifle and quickly went to Sgt. Rayn who was drawing his battle plan from his dataslate. Other corporals were around him, they were the veterans as they sink all of the information and strategies that Sgt. Rayn had instructed. He called the female Voxcaster and relayed his orders to the Tauros to commence covering fire to make his men ready for the assault; he quickly messaged the Command but gave no reply. Four Tauros vehicles pushed forward, armed with Automatic Grenade Launchers and Flamers as they provided covering fire for the troops. There were no trees to cover and no big boulders to provide cover, it was also riddled with barbed wires and some were rigged with mine.

"Sparrow, I need you to kill any heavy weapons nest you see, so we could advance." Sgt. Rayn ordered him as he turned his head towards the young Lieutenant.

"Sir, what are your orders?" he asked.

The Young Lieutenant was cowering behind the trench with his hands covering his ears, this made Sgt. Rayn squinted his eyes in disgust.

"What?"

"Orders! What are your orders?" Sgt. Rayn screamed,

"Are you crazy? They were shooting at us and expect me to give any order? I can't even think straight!" the officers said, his voice were covered in fear.

This made the rest of the soldiers to look him in disgust; they knew this was the typical "Blue Bloods" attitude. The Lieutenant made a tantrum when Sgt. Rayn told him about his responsibilities and their situation, he defiantly stood up to berate Sgt. Rayn much to the Sergeants horror. Before he could warn him a sniper had blasted his head. Everyone shook their heads much to the veterans delight; Sgt. Rayn regained his composure as he ordered Sparrow along with the other snipers.

"Guys, I need you to provide covering fire for us, we need to eliminate the Heavy Weapons squad so we could push through." he pointed towards the hill. The Snipers nodded and proceed into position.

Sparrow rushed into position with Harp and Hum beside him, both were arguing again but Sparrow could not hear what they were saying. He took deep breathes as his anxiety panic overcome him again; he saw bolters and autocannon rounds whizzing past him. Their enemies' accuracy is now getting better from their ceaseless firing, they already lost ten men from the trench and the artillery coming from the top of the hill is not helping.

He controlled his shaking on his hand as he trailed his scope to the autocannon team above; he took the shot and killed the gunner. The loader attempted to man the autocannon but got his head blown; the third one was shot by the chest before he could react. Sparrow searched for another target when he was startled by the ground exploding beside him, he rolled over as the heretic's heavy bolter team saw him. His heart beats faster as the thought of getting killed had flooded his mind, he desperately fight his anxiety as he failed to move. He tried to raise his head but a hard object landed on his back, he grunted in pain as a fellow troopers body slumped on top of him. His head was riddled with a hole, an enemy sniper. He thought.

Fortunately his fellow sniper caught the enemy sniper and killed him instantly; the other snipers killed the heavy bolter team and other support by the heretics. This gave Sgt. Rayn time to launch an assault; he signaled the mortar team to open fire and the Tauros vehicle to lead the assault. Sparrow was helped by Harp and Hum who took the dead body away; they helped him to get up.

"Let get these assholes!" one of them yelled as the others screamed.

Sgt. Rayn motioned the four Tauros to lead the way as two were armed with flamers and the other two with Twin Lascannons, the remaining two were armed with AGL's as they provide support. Seven squads with ten men each with their grav chutes bailed out from the trenches and charged towards the hill, in considerable distance they activated their chutes in full power and went airborne. Even though not a real jump pack, the chute managed to lift them up in the air enough for an airborne assault as they started shooting at the enemies hiding behind their covers, they landed at the enemy positions quickly eliminated them. Some engaged in a quick hand to hand combat, other squads had managed to breach some fortified pillboxes with Voss patterned demolition charge and killed the occupants with their combat shotgun and some were burned by flamers. They have cleared the way for the Tauros have started to advance, firing its Lascannonns and flamers. The heretics hiding from their cover were burned alive, while the others were obliterated by the superheated laser.

The remaining two Tauros rained high explosive grenades pounding enemy positions; they gained ground as the advanced towards the top of the hill. Unfortunately they did not see a squad of heretics carrying missile launcher had destroyed the Flamer Tauros, while the remaing autocannon of the heretics had destroyed the Tauros before it could fire its weapon. Some rookies tried to retaliate but were quickly killed by the autocannon team. The veterans wisely used the meltagun afar destroying the autocannon nest, the last running Tauros pushed forward but was disabled by a landmine. It's occupants were dazed but heretics soon swarmed them, they dragged them and stabbing with their bayonets. The driver screamed in pain while the gunner was stabbed by the throat, his gurgling wail were heard from afar.

"Emperor's balls!" Pvt. Harp screamed at the horrific sight.

"Kill those bastards!" bellowed his men

Sparrow was horrified by the sight, he was shaking again at the sight as something flashed into his mind. He trailed his scope at the heretics and saw their smiling face, they were laughing manically while mutilating his comrades. A memory returned to him as he screamed, he quickly pulled the trigger killing the group who were desecrating the two Elysians. His squadmates were startled by Sparrow's sudden behavior. He was sweating hard as he was in a trance his squadmates yelling him but he could not react to them, an explosion had sent him to the ground making him return to reality. His ears were ringing and he observed his surrounding, he saw Pvt. Harp taking cover while Pvt. Hum looked at him and screaming at him but he could not hear him, he looked into another direction as he saw some of his fellow troopers who were airborne were shot down. The veterans were on position providing covering fire as they did their best to keep his fellow rookies getting killed, he tried to get up but was knocked by another explosion.

Sparrow coughed hard while clutching his chest, he landed hard on the ground as he grunted in pain but he struggled to crawl into safety. An arm had grabbed him and dragged him into covers, the face of the worried Pvt. Harp emerged while Sgt. Rayn scrounging his medkit, he didn't know what was happening but he felt a pain in his chest, and Sgt. Rayn had injected him with combat drugs reducing any severe pain Sparrow felt.

"Hey, Sparrow… do you hear me." Sgt. Rayn asked

Sparrow nodded, as he takes few heavy breaths.

"Could you speak? How do you feel right now?" he added.

"I'm fine sarge, my chest feels funny but I'm alright." Sparrow replied.

"Good to hear that... Come on we still have a battle to fight." Sgt. Rayn said, as he gave Sparrow his weapon back.

Sgt. Rayn contacted the mortar team below to make a barrage on the hill, as he contacted the rest to make a final push. He directed the remaining squads to get into position as they will lead the way.

Sparrow with Sgt. Rayn and their squad quickly launched their grav-chutes in full power, they finally reached the top of the hill, and this had taken the enemies by surprise and quickly shoots them in the head. Already discarded his sniper rifle sparrow used his bullpup Lasrifle to support his squad, he quickly aimed his sights at the heretic who held a missile launcher shooting him in the neck. His squad had effectively eliminated the enemies guarding in front of the bunker, the rest of the squads soon had made into the top of the hill, quickly killing the remaining enemies around the hill.

The bunker was the only thing they need to take care of, Sparrow and his squad made a tactical breaching formation as they prepare to blow the metal door. Sgt. Rayn ordered one of their breacher to set the melta bombs breaching charges, Pvt. Harp was armed with a Shotgun and Pvt. Hum with a grenade launcher. His other squad mates Pvt. Jun and Pvt. Ralp were armed with flamers, Sgt. Rayn and Sparrow on the other hand were equipped with their lasguns. The door exploded and sent the metal door hurling inside the bunker, it killed a heretic armed with the heavy bolter who anticipated the attack. Pvt. Hum fired his grenade launcher inside the bunker killing any resistance, Pvt. Jun and Pvt. Ralp soon followed through as they release the promethium based flamer. They heard the agonizing screams as the heretics run towards them. They were cut down by Sparrow, Sgt. Rayn and Private Harp.

It was over as they killed the last heretic inside the bunker, the men cheered at their success. But soon quickly get to work as they set up any defensive position, Sparrow with his squadmates were ordered to burn the bodies of the heretics and take whatever they need. It took them almost half a day to secure everything, Sgt. Rayn was the man in charge of the 2nd Battalion now as most of their officers were down. Most rookies were dead save for his own squad and he made a quick headcount, 206 only remained from 400 strong remaining 2nd battalion. It was only getting worse and worse but they need to hold on until the 430th Cadian would arrive, thy managed to salvage the destroyed three Tauros with their weapons while the three remaining were positioned near the bunker. Mortar teams were also placed on top of the bunker along with two sniper teams, heavy bolters and autocannons were placed under the trenched they built around the hill and made choke points. Mines were planted and made makeshift tank traps, the job was strenuous to the 2nd Battalion but they we're dedicated soldiers.

The sun was setting as Sparrow's squad of six men gathered around a fire they made, with heated MRE's on their hand they enjoyed a few chat about the events. Sgt. Rayn was there but his eyes still darted at the dataslate, his face was serious as the troops noticed it.

"Something's wrong, sarge?" Sparrow asked,

Sgt. Rayn was startled and put his dataslate away, he looked his men one by one

"Nothing… just reading some reports."

"About what sarge?" Pvt. Ralp asked

Sgt. Rayn took a deep breath as he removed his helmet.

"You guys were lucky. I mean most of the guys who were still alive now were veterans like me." the atmosphere around them darkened.

"So, are we in this squad were the only rookies left?" Sparrow asked, his friends lowered their heads.

"Not exactly, only 23 of you remain. Two or three in each squad but most were veterans. I reshuffled some squads an hour ago to make things effective."

"you think we would make this out alive sarge?" Pvt. Hum took the courage to ask this kind of question.

Sgt. Rayn couldn't gave an answer but they knew that if they fight hard, they would make this out alive.

"I hope the 1st Battalion would get their asses here. We are a broken regiment." Pvt. Jun Said, trying to change the topic as everyone agreed.

"Hey isn't your wife a Lieutenant in the 1st battalion? I heard she was a really feisty one." Pvt. Harp piped in.

"I bet your wife would come and save our assess here."

"Not, happening." Sparrow replied, visibly embarrassed. The others cackled.

"Aw... Wouldn't hurt if your wifey would save you." Pvt. Harp said, Sparrow felt insulted but Sgt. Rayn interfered before something could happen.

"That's enough… alright you should take some rest now."

Sparrow's squad all stood up except for him and Sgt. Rayn, they went away to find a place to rest. He sees Pvt. Harp and Hum went inside the bunker as they flirt with the only female Voxcaster, he chuckled when both of his buddies were slapped. But he see signs that they were not giving up, he averted his gaze from them and stared at the fire. He remembered the events earlier as the heretics face registering in his mind; he remembered the day that changed him he was breathing hard again. A slap on his head made him back to reality; Sgt. Rayn glared at him with concern in his eyes.

"You know I've been watching you... Since the day you entered the training. I've seen something odd about you." Sgt. Rayn said.

"What do you mean sir?" confusion in Sparrow's tone.

"To be honest, I tried to dig into your records and something was not right." Sgt. Rayn looked Sparrow in the eyes as if was studying him.

"I am aware since the day you entered the Drop Troop training that you and Lieutenant Kestrel We're married. We were in the same regiment back then, she was too young but we both know she came from a military family and served our planet way back. But despite her age she was really good." Sgt. Rayn continued.

"I know that." Sparrow replied but still didn't get what Sgt. Rayn was saying.

"Your records were protected by a high level clearance, only the top brass could access it. What I've got is only your basic information and your service record that only reveal your first tour as a PDF at age of fifteen. The rest of your four years were classified. I don't know what is going and I know I don't have the right to know what your full story is. The day you entered the Drop Troop Regiment you were psychologically unfit, you had anxiety attacks and afraid at anything dangerous."

Sparrow could not reply, he knew it was the truth. He had a very disturbing past and he was an oddball in their regiment since he set foot in the regiment.

"But you proved me wrong; I maybe harsh on you back there and endured all of the brutal training. But you still emerged as a good trooper that our regiment expected." this made Sparrow turned his head to Sgt. Rayn

Sparrow was loss for words; Sgt. Rayn was the only real friend he knew back there. He was always berated by officers and made fun by the others. Likely due to his connection with Lieutenant Kestrel and his Psychological Problems they dubbed. He thought of quitting his life as he always knew he was weak, but Sgt. Rayn keep encouraging him and his wife gave him enough support.

"Hey, take a rest." Sparrow saluted as he stood up to find a good resting place.

He went behind the bunker where the weapons crates were placed; it was a dark place and a perfect spot to sleep. But he heard some hushed noises close to his proximity; he slowly searched for the source and found his friends. Just beside the crates were Sparrow was standing, Pvt. Harp and Hum with hushed voices along with the Voxcaster, Pvt. Melina was lying on the ground. He tried his best to suppress a laugh as he spotted several troopers, hiding in the covers of darkness were watching the three in action. Sparrow shook his head and returned to his spot, he could hear their suppressed moans as he tried to sleep. He closed his eyes as his thoughts were on his wife; Kestrel.

She met him at their school at age of twelve; she was a quiet girl with a long black hair and green eyes. Her gaze was always intimidating, even the biggest bully in their school was afraid of her. He soon found out that she was the sole daughter of a general in their planet in Elysia and a decorated soldier. Her family served the Elysian Drop Troop regiment for a long time and have a close connection to their planetary governor. And everyone was afraid to befriend her. She was a loner in fact, but he tried to befriend her one day but only received a blank stare from her. It was an awkward meeting as he tried to speak but she didn't say anything, it took him three months with little success trying to make friends with her, until one day. A girl from his class had humiliated him in front of many kids.

Kestrel only watched from the distance, he tried not to cry but soon breakdown in tears as their laughing intensified. Without knowing Kestrel went to their direction and without any word she attacked the girl with teeth and nails, literally. The poor girl ran away and Kestrel emerged victorious with a bloody mouth and a Blackeye, but their bond became stronger from that day on. No one ever dared to bully him and no girl ever came near him, until the day they decided to marry at an early age. With both parents furious but Kestrel proved to be rebellious and hard headed girl, with the influence and connection of her parents they married at age of thirteen but it was fifteen they had their first taste of lovemaking.

They were trained and became the Elysian PDF and made raids against Rogue traders and Eldar pirates. They made tours on different planet of their system and went to different continents; they tried their best to avoid any signs of Fraternization from others. Some would question about their connection to each other but just shrugged it off. They seemed to be inseparable and they watched each other's backs on any dangers they faced. They boarded few rogue traders and smugglers and sometimes they tried to chase eldar pirates.

He heard stories from the veterans about the tall and pointy eared xenos, they were fast and agile as he was told that he needed to keep his eyes open and a few good distance away from them. But their tone was serious when he heard about their dark counterpart, Dark Eldars. They were the same as eldars but much more evil bastards. They would say. He always wanted to meet them personally and bring the emperors justice on them.

Until one fateful day he and Kestrel were assigned to a mysterious Admiral which turned out to be her grandfather, everyone in the vessel was seems strange to him as the soldiers were different and lacked any semblance from Elysia. And what was mysterious to him is that they were informed to assisst an Eldar Corsair called the Black Talons, which was heretical and against the Imperial Creed. Unfortunately Kestrel always rebuked him when he raised the topic, but she sometimes fill in the blanks for him. Soon it was clear to him that they will hunt a Dark Eldar Pirates and needed the assistance from the Black Talon.

At first he was wary with them but soon befriended an eldar pirate who seems to be interested about the monkeigh culture, from him he learned their language and writings while in return he taught him everything about the Imperium. His friend he later learned that he was the youngest of the Black Talons and the child of the Eldar Captain, but their friendship were not unnoticed as the two soon never see each other again. He also got reprimanded by the Admiral but Kestrel stood for his defense.

When they finally located the Dark Eldars they immediately attacked with the help of Black Talons, they boarded at the Dark Eldar ship and started to kill everyone onboard. The battle were swift and brutal as they made a slow advance, the ship was rigged with unspeakable horrors and death traps that killed the troopers one by one. Soon the members of the Black Talon had joined the fight against their dark kin and turned the tide as they made their advance, he saw his eldar friend and assisted him. Kestrel was nowhere to be found as the last thing he saw is that she was at the another boarding vessel with her grandfather, he was worried about her but he needed to press on as they made their way into a dark room.

They saw a figure of a woman standing in the middle as his group made an advance, but with a blink of an eye the soldiers save from him and his eldar friend lay dead, with their heads decapitated and body parts were separated. There were screams as he was shocked to move, his friend quickly assaulted the mysterious woman until she easily defeated him. Her hands on his throat and lifted him with her one arm with ease, she was naked and a sword in her hand with a smile full of malice she turned her head on him.

His body was shaken by her gaze, her eyes brings terror to him as she giggled. He raised his weapon but obvious signs of fear were visible, making the wych laughed at his foolish attempt. His eldar friend used this as a distraction as he squirmed and kicked the wych in the chest; she released him as she almost fell but quickly regained her composure. She made a swift kick to the eldar at his abdomen making him fall to his knees.

"Yes… fight younger one…." she hissed as she was taking pleasure of the pain and fear she had inflicted.

"I always liked young men, so much energy." she grabbed the eldar's long blonde hair as he screamed in pain.

The Wych laughed as she raised him by the hair readying her sword, the young eldar screamed in agony he felt a blade slowly dug into his chest. He could feel the blade twisting around his wound.

He tried to shoot but his friend's screams were becoming unusually louder, as his head were at a great pain. Clutching his head and on his knees, he looked at his friend who was releasing balls of light and lightning. He could feel the pain and agony from his friend, as he felt that he was the one who was getting tortured. The screams were getting louder and louder as the pain was unbearable, the fear he felt were beyond comprehension of his mind. An orb of light was flying towards him, hitting his head. His screams were overshadowed by the laugh of the wych, closing her eyes as she savors the moment.

Satisfied she released the young dead eldar like it was a ragdoll, she now turned on the limping Sparrow who's readying his weapon. He shoots her but she was fast as she quickly evaded every shot he made, he felt a severe pain all over his body. He quickly realized she was toying with him, he kept shooting around the room but only her shadows and laughter were present. He swallowed hard as he keeps his focus; he soon caught a glimpsed of her form and quickly used his rifle as a club. The weapon only hit her in the arm giving him an amused look. She punched him in the face sent him flying across the room.

"That tickles you know." she taunted him

"Fuck you." he said, this time in eldar tongue. His voice now clearly shaking but he give his best to be brave. He quickly went for his lasgun and changed the clip; he aimed his weapon at her. His body were in pain because of the laceration she caused at him.

The Wych stopped in her tracks as she was surprised, her grin widened and continued to walk closer into him. His lasgun aimed at her but he couldn't pull the trigger, she could hear his heartbeat beating faster and faster. The psychic scream of the dead young eldar gave her much pleasure, and the human was a very good dessert for her.

She stopped in her tracks when she was a foot away from him, she inched her face closer to his and gazed into his eyes. She opened her mouth making him shiver as he was shaking violently, as she suddenly let out her tongue and licked his face. He didn't move and she laughed hard, she walked away from him and took her armor. She let him watched dressed and finally walked into the door, she stopped and gave a final look at him.

"So much I've enjoy killing you and seeing you suffer, I think I had enough for one day. Maybe we'll meet again." she said as she walked into him and licked his face before she disappeared.

He collapsed on the floor as he sobs as he looked into his dead friend, and crawled into his lifeless body. His hands now soaked in blood as he was close to his eldar friend, he looked at his lifeless eyes as tears flowing from his eyes.

"I'm sorry..." he cried.

Soon footsteps echoed outside the door and familiar voices screaming at his name, he heard a shriek but not of human origin. The last thing he remembered was his friend was cradled by his father, and he was hugged by Kestrel. That day gave him a deep scar that would never be healed. Until this day he could hear the agonizing scream of his friend into his mind, and until now fear of death still control his life.

Sparrow woke up from his sleep as Sgt. Rayn gave him a worried look. His friends were also concerned at him. He sighed but he felt something wet on his cheeks, he didn't realize he was crying.

"Something's wrong?" Sgt. Rayn asked.

"No. I'm fine sarge." he said. just nodded as he ordered everyone to get back to their post.

He was given a water canteen by Sgt. Rayn and took a swig, they soon discuss at the defensive positions they need. They have already planted several landmines around the camp and made several choke points, they were fortunate that they had huge inventory of explosives and melta weapons in their canister. They could use it in their advantage and three Tauros were left but in no condition of running. They have mortars but would not last long as they have little ammunition left, they have plenty lasguns and battery packs and a handful of autocannon and bolters. Sgt. Rayn told him that there is going to be an assault and they needed to be ready. Sparrow's hand trembled in fear as something troubling him, but he needed to be strong.

Few more men went around them and they discuss at the strategies they need, they spoke to in hushed tones because they knew what was coming next.

"Sarge, can I talk to you a minute?" Cpl. Duke was the first one to speak.

"What is it?" Sgt. Rayn asked as he took a sip from his canteen.

"I know you are aware that there is something wrong with this battalion." Cpl Duke replied, Sgt. Rayn knew exactly what he meant.

"The 1st Battalion were all veterans and they gave the rest of the greenhorns to us, I mean… this is bullshit sarge, I understand we may have rookies in the regiment but not the entire battalion. Even our officers were snot nosed blue bloods barely knew about this kind of war..." everyone around agreed.

"I know, plus most of the rookies were all dead and the rest of the guys alive were veterans like you and me. I also know that something is not right when they assigned me in this battalion." Sgt. Rayn lamented

"Guess what is more interesting? The 1st Battalion were sent off on the different continent by the higher ups and that is why we do not have any support. Our relieving force of Cadians, did not come yet. They didn't tell us anything but we holed up our asses here and wait for death to come. Looks like the 1st Battalion were up to something that gave us less importance sarge." Sgt. Ran could see the disappointment not only from Cpl. Duke but to the other veterans also.

The veterans around the group kept their voices to keep the rookies out of the hearing radius, they were discussing about the heretics and the worsts that would come. Sparrow seems to sink about the dangers would come, his breathing were hard again.

"Hey, calm down little birdie they're not gonna bite or something." Cpl. Duke jested; this earned a roar of laughter from the veterans.

"Hey no offense kid, we're just lightening up the mood." Cpl. Acer added

"Okay guys that's enough, let's just tell the rookies about what's we're about to face. Be ready for anything." Sgt. Rayn instructed. The rest saluted at the sergeant and dispersed. The rest of the day was relatively quiet, until they have finally attacked.

It was in the middle of the night when the first wave of the heretics attacked, the Elysians were alerted when their landmines exploded. The fired flares to see the enemies rushing towards them, they were different from the ones they encountered. They wore tattered and makeshift armor with an unusual sign marked on it, much to the horror of the veterans as they knew what would come next. They used their autocannon and heavy bolters to cut them down, but they were too many of them as they looked like a swarm of insects covering the hill.

Sparrow went into the trench and positioned himself beside the autocannon nest, as Pvt. Harp and Hum were the ones who manned the weapon. While Sgt. Rayn with his binoculars searching for potential target. He saw a heretic who was using hand signals, then he tapped Sparrow on the head.

"Sparrow, one o' clock underneath the torn down tree, a man using hand signals."

Sparrow quickly marked his target and shot the officer in the chest, this made the subordinates to scatter. He soon found mortar crew were preparing to fire, he shot the loader in the hand before killing the other one with a headshot. He keeps scanning for potential officers and enemy support units, just what Sgt. Rayn had instructed him his buddies on the other hand were arguing.

"For the love of Emperor, Harp what are you shooting at! You're not killing anybody but making a landscape." Hum yelled,

"Shut the fuck up Hum, just prepare the next magazine!" Pvt. Harp snapped.

"I can't believe you we're the gunner."

They were busy at bickering when a heretic suddenly appeared in front of them, his chain sword were ready to strike. Both we're startled but Harp quickly recovered as he aimed the weapon at the enemy and blew him into pieces. Blood and flesh scattered into their faces, at first they were shocked about it but soon burst out in laughter. Sparrow gave a light chuckle as rolled his eyes.

"Told ya I could hit one" Harp said as he gave Hum a shit eating grin.

Hum rolled his eyes as he continued to reload the autocannon. Sgt. Rayn keeps yelling on orders to the other squad, they need to hold on as the relieving force would arrive as soon. They were voxed by the 430th Cadian earlier, but they were ambushed by a blocking force and desperately fighting for a breakthrough. But they assured them they would come tomorrow, but the Elysians didn't expect it much. But it was a shot they needed to be alive.

A scream took Sparrow's attention as he looked at the direction of the Heavy Bolters nest, Pvt. Chavez was clutching Cpl. Dom's throat. Sgt. Rayn gave a nod to Sparrow to assist them and rushed into their aid, and he quickly took his med-kit and wrapped a bandage around his neck. The man was struggling and Pvt. Diaz was panicking. Not Good. Sparrow thought as he trying to control the bleeding, but the struggling of Cpl. Dom soon ceased as his eyes rolled. Both of them looked at each other and knew he was dead, and he quickly manned the Heavy Bolter and lay suppressive fire on the heretics.

He kept on firing at the enemies as his mind clouded with thoughts, his breathing becoming deep again as he fought hard keeping his fear to overcome him. He needed to fight to stay alive. He whispered prayers to the emperor as the heretics were now increasing by the minute, every heretic was killed another one emerges. They keep on charging never caring even they lost a limb or an arm, they continued to push forward as they were killed by the Elysians. Sparrow shot a female mutilated cultist with a sharpened metal on her hand, her body was blown to bits by his heavy bolter, and these were the cultist that the veterans were talking about earlier. They were vicious and grotesque. He needed to focus as more and more were coming in.

 **A/N: Hey guys, the second chapter of my story are now finished…. I know this is a long one but I want to make these just three chapters. The third and last chapter will be posted soon. Thanks again for reading and hope you enjoy my Story…**


	3. Chapter 3

" **It has been two hours since the attack had stopped, we have suffered many casualties. Sgt. Rayn said they were just testing our strength, finding our weakness and the right moment to strike.**

 **I hadn't got any sleep yet. We hear explosions nearby the hill. We suspect it was the 430** **th** **Cadian, We haven't got any word from them since yesterday, but I hope they will make it. Also our communications suddenly cuts off and we didn't know what had just happened, as even with the powerful communications equipment inside the bunker we couldn't contact the command. I know something was wrong and the heretics, they were more vicious and persistent, they seemed to become like a human fodder. Then I soon realized their purpose as I finally saw a traitor marine behind them. To be honest I was awe at their sight but lost five men in an instant but we fight back with our Autocannon against it, the veterans told us to use all heavy weapons against them. Well, I need to get back to my post before Sgt. Rayn catches me writing."**

 **Corporal Montan "Sparrow" Passer**

 **2nd** **battalion, 1st** **company, 3rd** **Squad Leader**

Sparrow swallowed hard as he has difficulty in breathing, his heavy bolter nest was blasted by a missile. He shakes his head as he heard loud ringing sound coming out from his ears, he look into his surroundings and the sight of Pvt. Chavez's severed head and blown body made his stomach turn. He crawled his way out of his nest and saw the scene outside, it was total chaos as the troopers were running back and forth into different positions. Others were shouting as they point out the enemy position to the mortar crews from the top of the bunker, firing as fast as they could to blast the heretics away.

Bodies of the heretics were piling up closer to the defensive perimeter, as they continue to gain more ground against the Elysians. Sparrow quickly stood up as he ran to reach the bunker. Inside, he saw Sgt. Rayn with the Voxcaster Pvt. Melina and the others. He walked closer towards them, overhearing the conversation.

"Sir, with due respect we will be overrun!"

"Calm down son, just hold on we had just made a breakthrough and we are rushing in now."

"How much time do we have to wait?"

"Just hang on."

"We are not going to last long sir! We have encountered a chaos marine earlier and I'm sure that he wasn't the only one."

"Son we are doing our best we could to get there, we are also taking casualties as we speak. Just hold your ground!" the conversation was over.

There was silence around the bunker. Sgt. Rayn tried to contact the 430th Cadian, but only to receive static as everyone made a grim look on their faces. He looked at everyone and regained his composure; he gave them a reassuring smile. Sgt. Rayn needed to keep his troops with hope; he needed everything to keep his men and women alive.

"Alright, we have to hold out the enemies as long as we could. We know we have to face those traitor marines, just remember what we have trained and listen to the veterans." He said as he readied his weapon.

"Besides, this is where we are good at. We may die but we will drag these bastards to the deepest warp, and they will never take this place until the last of us is still standing. The emperor protects!" He added.

"The Emperor Protects" they all chanted.

"Sparrow, Catch." Sgt. Rayn called Sparrow as he tossed a Sniper Rifle to him.

"It has Explosive Bolter Rounds. Make em' count." Sparrow smiled as he saluted him.

"Hey, help me over with this heavy bolter." Pvt. Hum called out Sparrow.

"Let's kill these bastards." Sparrow said as he lifted the Heavy Bolter and placed unto his back.

Sparrow carried the weapon behind his back, as Pvt. Hum carried four boxes of ammunition. They positioned themselves on the trench, setting up the heavy bolter and loading the Armor Piercing round. He set up his sniper rifle but before he could take the shot he noticed that the heretics were unusually accurate, even in the midst of darkness it annihilated the autocannon team with great accuracy from a distance that no ordinary man could do. And it only meant one thing; more chaos marines.

"Hum, take few shots so I could determine their location." Sparrow ordered

Pvt. Hum shot a burst of five to nine shots in the midst of darkness, soon he saw the tracers from the heavy bolter from the enemy heading towards them. They both dropped to the ground as the chaos marine quickly retaliated, He quickly recovered and manned his sniper rifle and trained his scope to the enemy.

He could see dim red light on the darkness indicating the helmet, the flashes of its weapon firing giving a glimpse of the whole image of the marine; vermilion colored armor, and its pauldron have markings of a horned skull. The weapon, a modified Heavy Bolter with the barrel fitted with a xeno skull. Each burst from his weapon resembled to a roaring beast, giving chilling effect to its victims.

His heart skips at the sight of the Traitor Marine, as it resembled the pure evil he encountered in his early years. He fired his weapon but due to his shaking hands he only hit the pauldron, the explosive round made the marine off balance. It regained its stance as it trained his weapon to Sparrow. Without wasting any time, Sparrow took another shot before the chaos marine could fire its weapon. He hit the right eye of the chaos marine blowing a quarter of its head but he was still alive, it was struggling to get up as the chaos marine screamed in rage. Sparrow finally aimed at the neck and took another shot, this time the head was severed from the body and landed at an unfortunate heretic killing him in the process.

"Did you kill it?" Pvt. Hum asked as he was still on the ground with his hand covering on his head.

"Yeah, just get back to your position will you." Sparrow scolded Pvt. Hum

As Sparrow was reloading his weapon he noticed that shooting soon subside from the heretic's position, this gave the Elysians great discomfort. But they used it as a chance to regroup and strengthen their positions, they reloaded their heavy weapons and gather as much ammo and firepower they could. Others did their best to help the wounded, and patch them up. Sgt. Rayn did a quick headcount and shook his head when ninety six was the last number, but a sudden explosion that killed a trooper made him recount to ninety five.

They scrambled into cover as the heretics made another assault, this time a barrage of missiles and plasma guns. It was unusual as there were no screams or manic laughing from the heretics, but distorted mechanical voice resembling that of the mechanicus.

"DEATH TO THE FALSE EMPEROR!" The chaos marines screamed as they rushed towards the defenders.

"For CHAOS!" The cultist screamed behind the chaos marines with their renewed strength.

"Traitor Marines! Here they come!" Cpl. Duke bellowed

"Get ready!" a random trooper screamed.

"Everyone, use the heavy weapons on them! Mortar team use flares. Concentrate firing on their necks and every opening you will see. They…" a Corporal whose name was Abby was shot on his chest, never finishing his sentence.

The malevolent appearance and viciousness of the chaos marines gave fear to every defender on the hill, but they fought back with great courage to repel the chaos push. The men running different directions to fill any gap of their defensive position, while their Tauros vehicles were used to give more firepower.

"Traitor Marines on the east side!" a soldier warned

"Sparrow we need you to kill it." Sgt. Rayn ordered as he rushed towards Sparrow and Pvt. Hums heavy bolter nest.

"We will take care of these cultists. You were the only sniper left." He added.

Sparrow rushed to the east side of the hill, crossing the trenches with his head down. He passed Pvt. Harp who was manning the autocannon, screaming profanities that he didn't see him once back in their training days. Reaching the east side of the hill, a trooper with his head bleeding pointed him the target; a chaos marine armed with a heavy plasma gun. It was still dark but the glowing blue emitted from the weapon made him an easy target as clear as day.

Sparrow quickly positioned himself and trained his weapon at the chaos marine, he knew they were difficult to kill so he aimed at the pack behind the chaos marine. He thanked the imperium for its weapons flaw as he shot the pack, the reaction of the explosive round and the unstable plasma were surprisingly similar to an earthshaker round. The heretics were burned by the explosion and it halted the assault on the east side, the bleeding soldier gave a smile before he collapse on the ground and died because of blood loss. Sparrow checked on him but the wounds were fatal, the chance of seeing the heretic's burn gave him an instant payback to them.

"Two more on the northern side!" a scream had caught sparrow's attention as he left and rushed through the northern part of the hill.

Two Heavy bolters firing at the chaos marines but gave little to no effect, they retaliated and destroyed the heavy bolter nest in an instant. Sparrow crawled towards the destroyed nest, he saw Cpl. Duke still breathing and bleeding from his head.

"Fucking bastards." He muttered under his breath.

He saw Sparrow crawling towards him and reached the bandage that Sparrow was offering; he wrapped the bandage around his head and peered his head with caution.

"Two marines, one armed with missile launcher, and another with a flamer making their way towards here. Wait for my signal." Cpl. Duke informed Sparrow

Sparrow nodded and rechecked his ammo; he loaded fresh rounds to his weapon. He read the hand signals Cpl. Duke was giving him and positioned himself into cover, Cpl. Duke on the other hand managed to get few men and prepared them for suppressing fire. He trained his scope at the flamer's promethium tank. Sparrow was ready as he nodded at Cpl. Duke, which gave the signal.

"Open Fire!" six men fired at the two heretics to gain their attention as Sparrow, now ready to unleash hell.

Sparrow fired one bullet and the explosive rounds made a huge fireball in the area, it instantly killed the two chaos marine and incapacitated the third emerging marine. Cpl. Duke and his men wasted no time as they concentrate fire on the chaos marine; they managed to blow his head with their well placed shots.

"Good job birdie, well take care from here." Cpl. Duke said.

Sparrow nodded and went to the southern side of the hill to check the area; there were no chaos marine but huge concentration of cultists making their push. The bright red color of the flares from the mortar gave clear view of the heretics, as the heavy weapons crew and other troopers kill the enemy. Sparrow replaced his explosive bolter rounds to regular rounds, as he gave sniper support to the southern side of the hill. He picked off few cultists that posed great threat such as missile launcher carrying cultists, and few mortar crews were also killed.

The intensity of the battle gave Sparrow an insight, this place was really a great strategic value as the forces of chaos give everything to retake the hill. He never thought taking a strategic value would be this so difficult, he always wondered back at Elysia why so many regiments were decimated. But now he understands the risks, the danger and the importance of a Drop Troop.

Sparrow was cut off from his trance as he heard the familiar voice calling him. He turned his head as Pvt. Hum, who was already with the mortar crew told him to position himself with them on top of the bunker, to provide more firepower. Sparrow quickly complied as he run towards the bunker, but before he could reach the bunker an explosion occurred.

The mortar crew were destroyed and their ammunitions were exposed as it made series of explosions. Everyone ran to their safety as the bunker almost collapsed at the explosion, Sparrow stood up and quickly saw his friend's body covered in flames. Another explosion erupted near him that send him to the ground; his ears were ringing as he crawled his way to safety.

His eyes scanned the area to assess the situation and saw his comrades were running away, he could see one of them was shot in the back. Sparrow stopped crawling and turned his body to see what was happening behind him, much to his horror two chaos marines had breached their perimeter and wreak havoc. A chaos marine with a chain sword saw him and about to give killing blow at him, but before he could strike he was shot by a Tauros. This gives Sparrow a chance to escape to the bunker.

The Tauros positioned near the bunker armed with Lascannon made a valiant defence, vaporizing traitor marine armed with a chain sword. Unfortunately it was destroyed by another traitor marine with a heavy bolter, the two remaining Tauros armed with AGL's launched all of their rounds to the marine killing it. After killing the marine, its crew tried to vacate the vehicle but was killed when they were hit by an artillery round.

Soon multiple explosions all over the place occurred, sending everyone to cover. These halted the heretic's assault as they retreated, while few chaos marines didn't care as they continued their push.

"What in the Emperors name is happening?" Pvt. Ralp asked.

"It's ours! Get to cover!" Cpl. Bryne replied

"Sergeant, the command had ordered to bomb our position!" Pvt. Melina called out from the bunker to Sgt. Rayn

"What!" Sgt. Rayn was in disbelief.

"They said we did not respond to their call."

"Call them to stop!" Sgt. Rayn now screaming at the top of his lungs as the sounds of explosions is getting louder by the second.

"I can't… something has prevented us to communicate with them! Looks like a jammer."

"Everyone get to cover! Get inside the bunker!" Sgt. Rayn called out to his men.

All Elysians rushed into cover as their own artillery pounded on them, some hide on the housing they made on the trench. While others tried to push their way into the bunkers, some were unfortunate to get killed by the artillery.

"Private Melina! Fucking connect us to the command!" Sgt. Rayn was never been this angry and frantic in his life.

"I'm doing my best sir." Pvt. Melina was now crying because of the pressure and the bombardment.

The artillery had pounded not just the hill top, but also its surrounding areas weren't spared. Some chaos marines were obliterated by the imperium firepower, the chaos cultist were retreating but were cut down by their chaos marine masters. Fortunately the stubbornness of the chaos marines cost their lives as they were killed by the artillery, most of them suffered by the earthshaker rounds. It gave the Elysians an advantage but also cost them some of their troops.

Everyone in the bunker were tensed as the explosions ceased, some were shaking while others cursed under their breaths. The atmosphere was depressing as some troopers especially the remaining rookies were frantic, the veterans tried to shut them up. Pvt. Melina did her best to tinker all communications equipment inside the bunker, but all of her effort didn't bear any fruit. Unfortunately the destruction of the mortar team above the bunker has destroyed the antenna, all of the high end communications equipment rendered useless except for the vox they have. Soon a crackled sound of the vox made everyone jumped, as the familiar sound the command was heard. Sgt. Rayn quickly rushed through the vox.

"710th Do you copy over… I repeat, 710th If you do not answer back we will acknowledge you were overrun and will carry out another bombing mission, 710th do you copy over."

"You fucking bastards, we are still here." Sgt. Rayn almost screamed.

In the background they heard officers berating their men and sounds of confusion.

"This is General Owen of the command staff, we tried to contact you 30 minutes before and no reply came. We assumed you were overrun."

"That's good news" Sgt. Rayn replied sarcastically

"710th Listen up, we already gave a cease order to the artillery. The Cadians were doing their best to reach you, as they are now almost 2 clicks away just hold your ground, looks like they just destroyed the jamming device. Just hold on. Command out." Sgt. Rayn shook his head in disbelief.

He was not aware that the heretics used a jamming device; it was now clear why there was a mysterious and sudden communications blackout. It gave him a huge amount of relief, but he knew they still need to defend the hill even they were battered; they need to hold their ground.

"Everyone, listen up, others out there might either be dead or wounded but we will hold our ground. Now go! This bunker would not last long!" Sgt. Rayn ordered

Everyone made out of the bunker along with their wounded and gear as it collapse when the last person came out, they dug into position near the bunker as they anticipated another enemy attack. They were not wrong as screams from the chaos cultist echoed throughout the hill, screams of chain swords and guns firing giving chill to Sparrow.

"Here they come! Get ready!" Sgt. Rayn screamed he was dug in the trench just outside the bunker.

When the first chaos cultist emerged from their line of sight, he was obliterated by the missile fired by the bloodied Cpl. Dom, and a barrage of lasers cut down the rest of cultists. Their bodies were piling up but they kept coming like a swarm of bugs.

One by one each Elysian fell but at the cost of five chaos cultist, Sgt. Rayn almost cried as he saw his men killed, needed to keep his men alive at all cost. Even the wounded give their best to defend the hill, as one of them purposely covered an enemy grenade with his body. Sparrow now without his sniper rifle used his marksmanship skill using a lasgun to inflict much damage; he killed four cultists when one of them was equipped with a flamer. Every Elysian did their best to kill as many cultist as they could, as one Elysian grabbed a heavy bolter like a rifle and killed many heretics. His actions inspire others to fight hard, but the weight of the weapon made him pay the price as a cultist manage to hack him with a chain sword as he was unable to dodge its attack. They fought them with all their might their numbers were reduced, and quickly gained ground.

.

"Sergeant! The 430th Cadian, they…" Pvt. Melina never finished her sentence. She was hit by a bolter round on her chest.

"Holy Emperor, No!" Pvt. Harp screamed. Sgt. Rayn restrained Pvt. Harp, as he tried to go after her body.

"She is dead, Emperor damn it! Focus on killing them." He ordered. He pushed Pvt. Harp to the trenches.

"Troopers, stand your ground! Use everything you have!" Sgt. Rayn Screamed as he rushed towards the vox.

They fought bitterly until the final cultist was finally killed, as other cultist retreated. and saw they were panting hard but they were still alert. Soon they saw at the horizon as the sun was setting up, it gave them hope as they made through another day.

"Death to Corpse Emperor and his Dogs!" a booming voice echoed throughout the hill.

Their smile faded as everyone froze when they felt little shaking to the ground, before they could comprehend what had just arrived a monster had emerged. An unholy hulking metal with two legs, visible flesh intertwined with metal, left arm armed with a claw and its right arm armed with a twin autocannon. Vermillion colored armor that resembled blood and its distorted face resembled a twisted madman and an unholy aura made everyone trembled at his presence. True to its name the chaos dreadnought know as a hellbrute had unleashed its hell to the troopers.

The chaos cultists cheered from afar at their champion as it made its way towards the Elysians, it has an unbelievable speed even with its size as it killed six men by crushing them with its claw.

"Use plasma weapons, missile launchers, everything! A soldier screamed as everyone scrambled.

The men fired everything they had at the chaos dreadnought, shifting their positions from time to time. Evading every assault from the chaos monstrosity, as they used their weapons but neither could scratch the hellbrute. It fired its autocannon and tore a trooper apart; its claw on other hand had caught another soldier by the head and squished it with ease. Sparrow fired several shots to its head but it missed because of too much movement, he quickly leaped into cover as he war retaliated by autocannon fire. It was a dire situation; he saw Sgt. Rayn on the vox and he could see from his face that was desperate. His breathing hard again and the fear inside him were almost unbearable.

Sparrow clutched his head as he felt nausea creeping him, he soon heard a screaming voice inside him. He tried his best to fight it, the manic laughing of Hellbrute and screams of his comrades intensified his fear and the pain in his head. Soon he felt something burning in his pocket as he tried to reach for it, a black stone emits a faint glow and his nausea and headache suddenly disappeared. He breathes heavily as he repositioned and caught a glimpse on his friend Pvt. Harp; he was running with a duffle bag slung on his back. Sparrow tried to call him but he was not heard, as the hellbrute was chasing after him while laughing and screaming murder.

Pvt. Harp soon tripped as he landed on the dirt was shaking in fear as the walking sarcophagus getting closer into his position. Sparrow and the others desperately tried to call for him, but he was weeping as the Chaos Dreadnought with a sadistic smile readied its Death Claw to strike him down. But before it could strike Pvt. Harp released the safety pins of the meltacharge from his duffle bag, he let out a scream as he lounge towards the dreadnought.

"For the Emperor!" he screamed as he set his meltacharge.

With seven meltacharges it was enough to disable the dreadnought. With its front armour exposed, they saw sickening bundles of flesh of what was once a human being. It was still moving as it made guttural noises. Sparrow held back his tears as his closest friends were all dead.

Pvt. Harp's sacrifice gave an unusual feeling to the troopers, they were not sure if it was courage or the emperor himself touched them.

"For the Emperor!" a trooper screamed as the others followed.

They renewed their strength and courage as they went out from their covers to charge the fallen hellbrute, they will not let the sacrifice of Pvt. Harp go into nothing. They fired at the flesh with their lasguns and burned it with their flamers, it let out an agonizing gurgles giving a chilling effect to the heretics afar as their champion was getting killed by the Elysians.

Sparrow wept as he charged towards the Hellbrute, the sight of the death of two friends gave him was too much for him. He felt his primal instinct roaring in as he took a knife he hid from his armor, a curved knife with unusual markings and it had a bone white color.

The Hellbrute despite lost its left arm, damaged legs and front armor exposed, it manage to kill several troopers as it swings its clawed arm. But the troopers desperately swarmed the hellbrute as the fired their plasma gun and flamer, someone planted another meltacharge and it crippled the hellbrute.

Sparrow leapt in front of the hellbrute and slashed its exposed flesh, with the knife and the stone his hand a white spark of electricity emitted and burned the flesh of the hellbrute. It howled in pain as it send Sparrow to the ground, other Elysians rushed to the hellbrute and used all of their weapons to destroy the grotesque flesh of what remained a former chaos marine.

Sparrow slowly stood up as he hid his knife and the black stone, he turned his head and the sight of the dead hellbrute being burned satisfies him.

"Revenge is served" he muttered.

Sparrow grabbed a lasgun from the ground and he joined the remaining Elysians as they continue their charge to their enemies, they engaged the heretics in a vicious hand to hand combat.

He did not have the time to reload as Sparrow tried to stab the heretic with his weapons bayonet, but was overpowered as they stumbled on the ground. The heretic almost got the upper hand but was stabbed on the forehead by Sgt. Rayn, the blood splashed at Sparrow making his face drenched in blood. Sgt. Rayn let out a chuckle as he reached for his hand, as Sparrow was getting up he saw an enemy trying to stab Sgt. Rayn. He pushed Sgt. Rayn away as he quickly used his lasgun as a club and hit the heretic on his head. He finished him off with a slit on his throat as Sgt. Rayn tossed him his knife; they continued to push back the heretics.

They concentrated their fire to the heretics, as Sparrow and the rest of his comrades fought bitterly. He felt an unusual sensation as he stabbed and shoot the heretics, the joy of the battle and the rage he felt towards them. The stench of dead and the burning odor of weapons was like a stimulant, each pain from the wound he suffered was nullified by the smell of combat. He felt he was like a primal beast destroying every puny creatures pitted against him.

"710th Drop Troops, the Cadians are almost here! Hold your ground!" Sgt. Rayn screamed

It gave everyone hope as the eighteen remaining men of the 710th Elysian Drop Troopers, almost out of ammunition and some only wielded a mono knife to regroup in one position. Sgt. Rayn stood beside Sparrow as they prepared themselves, the last cultist was killed but from the distant they could see ten more chaos marines armed with melee weapons closing in.

"Will the Cadians come?" Sparrow asked, everyone chuckled at his question.

They knew that before the Cadians would save their asses, they will already be dead. In short it was a forlorn hope to begin with.

"Nah, they will be late as usual." Cpl. Jeth answered; he was the oldest in their company.

"But look at the bright side, we saw sunlight and at least they are coming." Sgt. Rayn patted Sparrow's shoulder.

"Well, here they come." Cpl. Duke said, he was limping and he had only a knife in hand.

The screams of the chaos marines were heard as they were closer and closer, as soon as the chaos marine were in their line of sight. Sparrow armed with a plasma gun managed to kill a chaos marine by blowing its head, others armed with missile launchers and flamers did much damage to the chaos marines.

"Die Imperium scums!" The Chaos marine screamed.

"For the Emperor!" Sgt. Rayn Screamed.

The 710th rushed towards the chaos marines in a final battle, but before they could reach their enemy they were knocked out by an explosion.

In a minute almost a hundred earthshaker rounds were unleashed, followed by air firepower by the Vendetta gunships circling the hill. A crawling chaos marine soon emerged from the dust, but it was obliterated by the krak missiles of the vendetta. Chimera APC's and Sentinel walkers arrived at the hill and the Cadians finally arrived to secure the place.

Sparrow emerged from the dirt as he clutched his arm, he was badly hurt but he was lucky he survived. Soon realization came into his mind as he frantically searched for his comrades, he tried to get up by the pain from his leg prevented him. Making him fall to the dirt, he groaned but he crawled anyway to search for his comrades. Tears soon flowed from his eyes as he saw bodies of his comrades lay dead, his eyes soon caught someone moving behind the rubbles. It was Sgt. Rayn laying on the ground, but Sparrow could see his chest moving.

"Sarge.." Sparrow tried to speak but the dust and exhaustion made his voice croak.

"Sarge…" Sparrow called out again as he saw the familiar body of Sgt. Rayn on the ground.

He crawled his way towards him as everyone was dead, he reached towards his body and saw him still breathing. Unfortunately shrapnel was visible in his chest as he was bleeding.

"No… no… no…!" Sparrow was now frantic as he tried to save Sgt. Rayn

But Sgt. Rayn's hand reached towards sparrow, he looked him in the eye and smiled at him.

"Hey, it's okay…" it was the last word he said before his hand fell from his wrist,

Sparrow sobbed as he clutched his sergeants body, he didn't notice the sounds of the familiar screech of the Valkyries and Vendetta Ships hovering around the hill. He didn't even hear the screams of orders from the 430th Cadian, who had just arrived and to secure the place. To Sparrow, everything around him had stopped, his friends were dead.

The 1st Battalion rappelled from the Valkyries and Vendetta's, while others landed with their grav-chute. They checked everyone but all were dead. Finally aware of his surroundings, he gave all of his strength to stand up and turned to the voices behind him. A familiar face has greeted him as he limped his way towards them. The officers and Kestrel gave him worried looks but he brushed it off, he was a mess as blood was all over his face. He saluted them and reported.

"Hill secured." It was the only word he said before he collapsed on his knees in front of them. Kestrel hugged him.

Before he lose consciousness he felt Kestrel's warm body, her breath on his ear as she whispered; "it's alright. You are safe now" Sparrow closed his eyes as he knows it is all over.

The defense of the 710th Elysian Drop Troop was lauded by the higher ups, as the hill proved to be vital to the Imperium. The hill itself was soon occupied by Manticores, Basilisks and Griffon artillery tanks that gave the imperium the edge. Also it provides vital outpost to logistics as they secured the road known as the "Murder Pass", with the 430th Cadian securing the place supported by few regiments the desert campaign of the Plant Noir II was a success, the hill was renamed Hill 710-2 in memory of the valiant defense of the 2nd Battalion of the 710th Elysian Drop Troops.

Sparrow woke up in an unfamiliar place; it was different from the battlefield. Everything was white and the place smelled like soap. He groaned as he tried to sit on the side of his bed, he clutched his face as he felt shit. He didn't know how long he was unconscious, his body was still sore and he had a minor headache.

"Hey, how do you feel right now?" a voice made his heart jumped in joy.

"I'm fine" Sparrow replied

The sight of Kestrel, made him forget the pain he felt right now, as she sat beside him. There was a long silence between them, as Sparrow could not think of any conversation. His mind still clouded by the events happened earlier; his hands grabbed Kestrel's hand. He tried to speak but he felt pain from his throat, giving him difficulty to speak clearly. Instead he just stared her at the eyes.

"What bothers you? Kestrel asked, with a concerned look.

Sparrow frowned at her question as he recalled everything had occurred back at the hill, he took a deep breath and used his remaining strength to speak even it was painful to him to speak.

"Everyone was dead. Harp, Hum, and Sgt. Rayn… my friends are all gone." Sparrow said as he held back his tears. His voice was raspy as he squeezed Kestrel's hand with his.

"He was my friend. I knew you would get along. And I am sorry for your loss."

Sparrow smiled at the memory of Sgt. Rayn, he glanced at her but his smile faded when she looked at him. Her face was deathly serious, it sends shivers to Sparrow for he knew something was going to happen, really bad.

"Sparrow, I mean Montan, I think this would be the best for us to never see each other again." She handed him the gold ring with a little sparrow etched on the side. Sparrow tried to ask her but was stopped.

"I'm sorry." Kestrel said as she walked out of the Triage, leaving a devastated Sparrow and still at loss of words of what had just happened.

Outside the triage centre, he was observing the scene. He crossed his arm as he feels little sympathy towards the man, but he knew this has to be done or he would be executed. He made a bargain with Inquisitor Aetos or the "Eagle" he knew that Inquisitor Kestrel could not cover his ass anymore; she was his protégé after all. Her little sparrow was now a liability for her. Her front as an Elysian Officer for the benefit of Inquisitor Aetos was a real success; it also served as training for her to become a good Inquisitor. Inquisitor Aetos was a cunning man, a rival of his former master. He knew to how to play his game well, disguised as a high ranking officer of the planet while being a powerful inquisitor at the same time. The influence he has on the Elysia Sytem and to the few Eldars around, he knew it will be difficult to cross this man. When Kestrel was out of the medic station she glared at him, knowing why he was here.

"I know it is hard for you. But we both know he was a very powerful man. Not even you his own granddaughter could stop his wishes."

"I know. What choice do I have, he was a Lord Inquisitor and I'm just to follow everything he wants." Inquisitor Kestrel did her best to hold her emotions.

Losing her only best friend and lover is hard for her. She glared at Inquisitor Thracian and raised her brow, as he was disguised as an Imperial Navy Admiral and he really gave an intimidating presence to everyone around him.

"Make sure he lives until the day I will come back for him." She walked away

"I cannot promise that, but I will get the most of him." Inquisitor Thracian muttered under his breath but he knew Inquisitor Kestrel could hear him.

He entered the medic station and smiled at the distraught man.

"I know it's hard to lose everything."

Sparrow didn't answer him, nor did he care for whoever was talking to him.

"But it's just the beginning of your life. She left you because you are weak." Sparrow glared at the man who was talking to him.

He was dressed as an Imperium Naval Officer; he was young with a blonde hair and mysterious look in his eyes. The insignia of an admiral made Sparrow to groan.

"Don't tell me you're one of those weird admirals I stumbled years back. What do you want?"

Sparrow sighed heavily as it was too much for him. The loss of everyone important to him was too much for him to handle.

"Serve the God – Emperor" Inquisitor Thracian blandly replied.

"I do not care and just kill me."

"I'm sorry but I cannot do that, your brain is very precious to us. As we both know you contain a psychic energy from the Eldar." Sparrow almost bristled but Inquisitor Thracian held him in the hand.

Fear crept all over his body, like a child caught in the act. He tried to run away but he couldn't, as Inquisitor Thracian's gaze made him froze.

"You think Kestrel didn't know? Even Aetos is aware about your talent and the souvenir you've got." With his pocket, Inquisitor Thracian showed a black stone and a necklace that made Sparrow eyes widened.

"Maybe this will convince you. By the Decree of the God-Emperor I am ordering you to come with me." The sight if the red I and the skull in the middle gave Sparrow a sigh as he lowered his head.

"His name was Seth, only child of the captain from the black talon corsairs. A friend of yours and taught you their language. And you've taken a precious spirit stone personally owned by your friend. And the knife you used was in fact a wraithbone that channels the psychic energy that killed the hellbrute. And the most fascinating fact about you is that you contain a little psychic spark from the eldar friend of yours. I must say you already made too many offences against the Imperium, and if you will not comply with me other eager inquisitor will do such horrific acts that you could not even comprehend. Besides, Kestrel entrusted me to take care of you." Inquisitor Thracian said in matter of fact tone.

"What I'm going to do next, Sir?" Sparrow asked. Dejected and he had no choice at all.

"You will meet your two buddies. And I will temper the three of so you will be my three sharp swords." Inquisitor Thracian smiled.

Inquisitor Thracian has now three men with an unusual background, but these men were perfect for him. He didn't need many troops or powerful weapons but men with special qualities that will succeed whatever this galaxy will throw at him.

 **A/N:**

 **I would like to personally thank BIBOTOT for pointing out my grammatical errors to my story; I hope you enjoy this last chapter.**

 **This is the last chapter of the Elysian story, this is one of the three short origin stories that I made. I originally plan to make a multi-chapter about the inquisition and the three protagonist and their adventures. But I decided to make a short back story for them before I posted it. Hope you liked it.**

 **I am still writing the two other stories but I will do my best to post them soon.**


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